Anybody who has seen the movie The Princess Bride, or has lived on the planet the last few decades, knows the deliverance of the revenge speech: “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” It has been repeated and memed countless times.
Anybody who knows me, knows this is my favorite movie.
I Hate Waiting
I surprised myself the other night when I watched the movie again, because I needed the pick-me-up, that I am like Inigo, not for his “overdeveloped sense of vengeance”, but for another part of the movie, where the man in black is climbing up the side of the rock cliff and tells Inigo he could throw down a rope to help him get to the top faster.
The interaction goes like this:
IM: “I do not think you would accept my help, since I am only waiting around to kill you.”
MIB: “That does put a damper on our relationship. You’ll just have to wait.”
IM: “I hate waiting.”
Patience is Painful
THAT. That is me. I hate waiting. Patience is a virtue, but it’s not mine, never has been. I want and I want now, whether it’s receiving or giving or doing or whatever.
I am a sad but accurate representation of the world and the misguided notion of instant gratification.
I am trying to be smart with my money and found out I could save some by ordering online instead of going to the bookstore. Then they ship the book(s) directly to you. Great deal, right?
But, it takes time.
Which means I wait.
I hate waiting.
Reaping Rewards
But, I made myself do it! It was painful, but I got through it. I survived. I waited, I focused on other things, and I got stuff done in the meantime that needed to be done, and will now be out of the way when the books arrive. Yes, books.
Ecclesiastes 3:2 says there is a “time to plant and a time to harvest”. You can’t plop a seed into the ground and expect to get a flower or fruit or veggie in an hour. It must grow. It takes time. You must wait. You must be patient because there IS no other option.
You can’t force a seed to grow, or water to boil, or true love to find you (they might have to come back from being mostly dead, after all), or elevator doors to open any faster, by wishing it was so. Or by pushing the button thirty times.
However, “Time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” ~ Earl Nightingale Tweet this!
Basically, we have to suck it up and wait. But, we must not be lazy in the waiting. While we are waiting for one thing to happen or grow or come to fruition, we must do something else to move ourselves forward on our path.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him.” (Lam 3:25) We might think we’re just waiting for a book to arrive in the mail, or a flower to bloom, but there might be some larger, behind-the-scenes development that’s actually going on in our lives that we don’t know about yet.
But think of the rewards once those arrive.
And if you are anything like me, you suffer from a malady known as distractivitis (a condition or tendency to be easily distracted), so by the time my order arrives, I’ve already forgotten I’d ordered it, so it’s like a surprise gift in the mail!
Becky is a single mom navigating her own groovy trails. She considers herself a “real” Christian…which means she believes in Jesus Christ, she is imperfect like everybody else on the planet (only God is perfect), and she tries not to judge others. Unless the waist of their pants is at their butt cheeks; then she thinks they should pull those puppies up. Or somebody says she eats too much chocolate; then she just can’t be friends with them anymore. Join her to discover how your plans and God’s plans come together in this life full of Groovy Trails!
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